By Friday evening as we were putting Charlie to bed, I was still scoffing at all the hubbub. We'd just lost a big limb off the tree in front of our house, but the snow wasn't that high and didn't appear to be coming down that hard. Charlie was obviously not feeling well, and had just gotten sick all over me (again - it's been a rough week for that!) and we'd cleaned him up and put him to bed, so we decided to go ahead and get in bed ourselves, and enjoy some quiet time to read. Shortly thereafter, though, the power went out. It had blinked a few times over the evening, but this time it went out for good.
Fast-forward to 8 a.m., when I awoke to a chilly house. I went and scooped Charlie out of his crib and brought him into our bed, and we spent the next several hours under the comforter, Charlie dozing or quietly staring off into space (he was definitely not feeling like himself). When we finally got tired of lying in bed, we ventured out into the living room and got the gas fireplace going, but gas fireplaces don't put out too much heat, unfortunately. Charlie and George needed some reinforcement:
After an hour or so by the fire, it was back to bed for an afternoon nap. I now understand why bears hibernate - there's nothing else to do when it is that cold!
Dominion VA Power suggested on their automated service that we would have power again by noon, but at 4:30 we still didn't have it, and I was starting to get really worried about Charlie spending an even colder night in the house. His cough sounded terrible, he had no appetite and no energy, and we couldn't nebulize him without power. We called our friends Christine and James, and found out they had power and would be happy to have us for the night if only we could get to them in Bethesda (about 45 minutes away). Unfortunately the car and driveway were buried under close to 2 feet of snow - but I figured I'd head out and start shoveling. I shoveled myself a path to the car:
and started shoveling the driveway. It was slow-going, though, and the sun was dropping faster than I was clearing the snow. I decided to take a break and let George take a turn, and as he was bundling up to head out, the p0wer came back on! I've never felt so happy to hear the hum of the furnace. It had dropped down to 53 degrees in our house, and while we weren't seeing our breath yet, we figured it wouldn't be long. Luckily, the house warmed back up quickly. After eating graham crackers and peanut butter all day, we were really excited to have a warm dinner, and be able to give Charlie a nebulizer treatment before bed. We had a moment of panic again around 9:30 when the lights went out for a few minutes, but they came back up again and we've had power ever since.
Today is a beautiful day! It was 18 degrees when we woke up, but the sun has been blinding off the snow all morning, and even though it's still only 27 degrees, the snow is starting slowly to melt on the car. George is out shoveling as we speak, and our incredibly kind neighbor just brought his snow blower over and cleared a nice walking path through our driveway - and his wife brought over an old book of children's stories for Charlie. We're lucky to have such thoughtful neighbors! Charlie is a lot more active today than he was yesterday, and while he's still coughing like a pack-a-day smoker, his chest is sounding less congested than it was. He's napping at the moment, and I'm going to enjoy the free time to try to Clorox some of the germs out of our house!
I hope everyone else dealing with this wintry mess is safe and warm! George and I decided that we are not pioneer stock and not cut out for cold-weather living - at least not indoors! Dad, it may be like camping, but I hate camping!
Here are a few photos of our yard in the snow:
Out our kitchen window:
George standing in the path I shoveled - snow on either side is about knee-height:
Our back deck:
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